Brandon Schmidt
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The Baby-Blues Believer
The baby-blues and postpartum depression are forms of depression that affects women after childbirth. The baby-blues occurs in seventy five to eighty percent women after delivery but only about ten percent of women have the more severe of the two prognoses, postpartum depression ( In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman, the narrator suffers from neurasthenia. Postpartum depression was not yet classified or thought to be a severe mental condition at the beginning of the 19th century. Gilman, who suffered from postpartum depression but over came it, wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” to show the consequences of what happens to women suffering from neurasthenia if they followed the prescriptions given to them by the medical field during the 19th century. She also later went on to write other articles like “Why I wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’?” to state that she was not trying to frighten people but show them the consequences of this mental illness if ignored or given the “rest cure” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper). “The Yellow Wallpaper” is about a woman who suffered from neurasthenia, was prescribed the “rest cure” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper) and ultimately lost her sanity, or her inability to tell the difference between reality and fantasy, as a consequence of the medical field’s inability to effectively provide proper diagnose, treatment, and a support network or group needed to overcome this mental disease. This is relevant to modern times because the issue of whether women truly do suffer from postpartum depression and the treatment thereof is still under debate and society needs to be informed of the consequences of ignoring this mental illness.
The narrator is evaluated by “a physician of high standing” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper) who believes her condition is nothing more than a “temporary nervous depression” or “a slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper). Furthermore, he did not consider it as a mental disease that could lead to further problems or complications if left unchecked. The reality of the situation is that postpartum depression, if not diagnosed early, can lead to severe depression and actions like the murder of oneself or others. In the short story, the narrator was diagnosed with neurasthenia and her husband and brother, both doctors, agreed with the doctor’s treatment and she was forced to deal with her own mental illness within the constrains of the “rest cure” prescription. Although the medical field was not able to effectively diagnose the postpartum depression because of the lack of medical advances and technology, the diagnosis for neurasthenia was primarily formed by doctors, males, trying to figure out what was wrong with their patients, females, without the patient’s input. This was one of the biggest flaws in the medical system during the 19th century as related to women’s health issues and why the narrator was wrongly diagnosed.
The treatment that was given to women with neurasthenia at the time was the “rest cure” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper). This treatment declared that the women are “absolutely forbidden to ‘work’” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper) and if they did, their spouse, family, and doctors looked down on it. The narrator is only allowed to only care for herself and even that is up for debate because her husband has the servants, his sister or himself wait on her. She is unable to do anything but lounge around and occasionally write or have intellectual conversations with others. It is this treatment that ends up pushing the narrator to the edge of her sanity and over it because she loses her sense of importance in her home and society. Additionally, the medical field did not know what medication or psychoactive treatments mental diseases needed. They were unaware of the chemical imbalances in the brain and the problems and actions that they can cause a person to do. The hormonal imbalances after childbirth that result in the lack of serotonin, the source of depression, can cause drastic mood swings along with severe complications in the processing of thoughts. According to the Mayo Clinic, postpartum depression is treated with anti-depressants that alter brain chemistry “by increasing the availability of the neurotransmitter serotonin in [the] brain” ( to stop the severe mood swings and then psychotherapy is given to deal with the mental issues.
In the story, the narrator does not have a support group, which in modern times is one of the most important things needed to overcome depression. A patient’s likelihood of becoming cured of a mental disease is significantly less if they do not have a proper support network or group in place. The narrator’s lack of a support group or network is obvious from the beginning of the story. “If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper) She is unable to confide in her own family and friends and is left to overcome the problem by herself. Moreover, she is continually told that nothing is wrong with her. This causes even more mental strain to be put on her because she is does not have the mental capability to deal with her own depression and her husband’s suppression. She is unable to perform the basic human need to communicate and confide in others and loses the will to hold back her insanity.
Even in today’s society, some males, like Tom Cruise, believe that only vitamins can be used to counter the hormonal affects of postpartum depression and that those using antidepressants are drug abusers. This way of thinking seems similar to that of the “physician of high standing” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper), that women do not actual suffer from postpartum depression, the lack of serotonin, but just an imbalance of the hormonal system. The hormonal system is most certainly involved but the imbalance caused by the lack of serotonin in the brain is the root issue. This causes the symptoms of depression (mood swings, irregular actions, impatience) and in the extreme cases cannot be fixed only through vitamins and exercise but requires the proper diagnoses, treatment, and support groups needed to help patients get better. In Brooke Shields well-worded reply, she states,
I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Mr. Cruise has never suffered from postpartum depression. To suggest that I was wrong to take drugs to deal with my depression, and that instead I should have taken vitamins and exercised shows an utter lack of understanding about postpartum depression and childbirth in general. If any good can come of Mr. Cruise's ridiculous rant, let's hope that it gives much-needed attention to a serious disease.
Work Cited
2006. Postpartum-depression. 7 Oct. 2005 <
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Boston, MA: Small & Maynard, 1899
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”?. The Forerunner,Oct. 1913